Isaiah 58: 7-10; 1Corintheans 2: 1-5; Matthew 5: 13-16
In this week’s gospel, Jesus compared his followers to salt and light. He said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world.”
Now, the light comparison makes sense. Jesus explained that people don’t light a lamp and then hide it under a bushel basket. Just as the light illuminates the whole room, Christians need to “illuminate” the world. The light of God’s truth must shine out from us so that a lost and sinful world can see that there is a way to be saved.
The salt metaphor, however, has always caused me to scratch my head and say, “Huh?” What in the world did Jesus mean when he said, “You are the salt of the earth”? To me, salt is the stuff in those little shakers that are on virtually every kitchen table, right next to the matching pepper shaker. The main purpose of salt is to give well-meaning relatives the opportunity to warn, “Don’t use so much salt! You’ll get high blood pressure and have a stroke! . . . I read it in a magazine.”
But I recently read a story that helped me understand just what Jesus might have been getting at when he said we must be the salt of the earth. It was about a guest who was asked to give a toast at a friend's wedding. At the reception, as the glasses were raised, the guest presented the couple with a beautifully decorated gift box. Inside the box was salt - common table salt. The guest then offered this toast to the couple:
"It's hard to keep house without salt. It adds flavor and taste to just about every dish.
And if you run out of toothpaste, you can brush with a mixture of soda and salt because of salt's cleansing qualities.
If you develop a sore throat, you can gargle with salt because of its healing properties.
If you're hungry, you can cure a ham or other meat with salt because of its preserving qualities.
You can use salt to melt the ice that builds up in the winter cold; salt can also be used to put out fires that flare up.
So if you'll bring to your marriage the qualities found in salt - the cleansing qualities, the healing quality, the preserving quality -
If you use it to enhance the flavor of your life together; to melt the ice that will build up and put out the fires that will occasionally flare up between you; and, of course, if you take everything with a grain of salt, you will have a long and happy life together."
And the same can be said when we are “the salt of the earth.” Jesus’ disciples are to spread the Gospel as if it were salt, preserving and saving mankind (to keep mankind from “rotting” or “decaying” because of our sinfulness). The disciples are to spread the “flavor” of the Good News to everyone we meet. And with this Gospel salt, we don’t have to worry about getting high blood pressure and having a stroke. This salt is so healthy it gives people eternal life.
"You are the salt of the earth." "You are the light of the world," Jesus says. Today it is we who are the disciples whom Christ gives these instructions. It is we who take these images to heart and be salt and light for the world. Through you, in you, because of you, the "light" enters the world; life is given meaning. You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth. The building of the Kingdom of God is dependent on the warmth of the individual heart, the courage of the faithful spirit, the generosity of the disciple's soul. You are the salt of the earth because you enter into the world and make a difference. You are the light of the world because what you do, what you say, how you live, who you are, is a witness for all to see. God makes us an essential part of his plan of salvation. The Kingdom is to be built in us, by us, and through us.
Easier said than done. In 1973, world-renowned psychologist Karl Menninger made headlines by writing the book Whatever Became of Sin. In his book, Dr. Menninger decried our modern tendency to deny the existence of sin and to avoid even speaking about sin. He pointed out two dangers to this tendency. For one, if we lose our sense of sin, then we run the risk of losing authority over our lives. In other words, if we blame our parents or our culture for all of our actions, then we eliminate accountability for our decisions. Secondly, without a sense of sin, any choices that we make are valueless. If nothing is wrong, then it doesn’t matter what we do.
I fear that what Dr. Menninger wrote over thirty years ago is still the mindset of our society today. It seems that everyone can find a psychologist who can relieve them of the burden of taking responsibility for their actions. Individuals no longer recognize that they can choose to sin. Sin, instead, is presented as a result of environmental conditions, or of bad genes, or, most often, the fault of other people.
But there are people in the world who stand up for what is right, and who take responsibility for their actions and seek forgiveness. These people are Christian. Many of these people are Catholic. And they are Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.
There are people in the world who say that marriage as civilization has known it no longer exists. They say that the current divorce rate demonstrates that people are incapable of making a lifetime commitment to one person. They talk about open relationships where fidelity is no longer a necessary element of marriage. For them the word “commitment” goes the way of the word “responsibility.”
But there are people who believe that marriage is to one person. They work on their marriages, relegating divorce as the last possible alternative. They want their children to grow up with a healthy respect for marriage. These people are Christian. Many of these people are Catholic. And they are Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.
There are people in the world who believe that hurting other people is just part of life. They believe that the only way you can gain in any area of the world, be it business or even just social status, is to knock others down. They are convinced that it is a dog eat dog world and they would rather eat than be eaten. So they take advantage of others.
But there are people in the world who believe that a bad gain is a loss. These are people who aren’t willing to accept a promotion in business or status unless they earn this position honestly. These people are Christian. Many of these people are Catholic. And they are Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.
The fact of the matter is, that if we want to be faithful to the challenge of the gospel, we cannot simply listen to Jesus and store his words in our heart; we have to go out and proclaim them to the world. It is not enough to have his light shining within us, unless we take that light and let the world see Him shining through us. It is not enough to realize that Jesus provides the flavor and the salt for our own lives. We must go out into the world and share that salt with others whose lives are flat and tasteless because they have not come to know Jesus, our Lord.
The extent to which we center our lives around values, around what is right, and act on that, simply because it is right, quite apart from whether or not it is comfortable, fun, profitable or popular, to that extent we will truly be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In any relationship, in any setting – at home, at work, at recreation, at school, in casual contacts – our role is the same . . . to preserve, to strengthen, to encourage goodness, to enlighten, to dispel darkness and shadows. That is what salt and light do. And we are the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.
